Sergei Sokolov

Sergei Leonidovich Sokolov (1 July 1911-31 August 2012) was Minister of Defense of the Soviet Union from 1984 to 1987, succeeding Dmitriy Ustinov and preceding Dmitry Yazov.

Biography
Sokolov fought Japan in the Battle of Lake Khasan in 1939 and then in World War II, serving on the eastern front. In 1965 he was made the leader of the Leningrad Military District and in 1984, with the death of Defense Minister Dmitriy Ustinov, he became the new Minister of Defense.

Under his tenure as Minister of Defense, the Soviet Union was at war with the Mujahideen in Afghanistan. During his tenure the Mujahideen had the upper hand, with support from the United States and the People's Republic of China. He was dismissed in 1987 after it became clear that the USSR's anti-aircraft program was unstable; German pilot Mathias Rust was able to fly from Germany to the Red Square in Moscow many times to create an "imaginary bridge" between East and West to decrease tensions in the Cold War. The incident was seen as showing Sokolov's ineptitude and Russia's defenselessness.